UK elections: “I’m only too glad to fly away from this orgy of dishonesty”

The British press leads with the first day of the official election campaign as Gordon Brown makes the short trip from Downing Street to Buckingham Palace to ask for the Parliament to be dissolved. Some are eagerly anticipating a nail-biting election while others are only too happy to avoid it. TUESDAY, 6th APRIL, 2010

For the Times of London, this is an election for “change” (now there’s a novelty…) In any case, the paper lays out its vision for Britain in 2015 today, as Gordon Brown prepares to dissolve Parliament in advance of a May 6th poll. It includes new industrial hubs, keeping taxes and regulation low, a reform of the welfare state limiting some services and maintaining Britain’s international role as a ‘bridge between Europe and America’.

In the Guardian, Geoffrey Wheatcroft says he’s only too happy to be jetting out of Britain for the entire duration of the election campaign.

“Can anyone honestly pretend that the choice between Brown and Cameron means as much as between Attlee and Churchill 60 years ago or Callaghan and Thatcher 30 years ago?”

He says that The Guardian’s editorial line is often something like this: despite Labour’s many problems (including creating one of the most intrusive surveillance state in Europe), the Tories are worse. For Geoffrey Wheatcroft, this is not the most inspiring slogan to get us to the polling station.